I'm not going to go very deep into the hair thing at them moment. Just enough to mention a few things.
I got my hair cut by students at a cosmetology school because it was near my work and it was cheep. The hairdressers are all supervised and studying to get their licensor. It turns out, to be certified, they only need to know how to do white people's hair. If you want to learn things like braids and locks and certain kinds of extensions, you have to pay the money to go to an entirely different school and take a supplemental exam AFTER you have taken the first one. The initial class will teach you to do perms (relaxers), but that is about it. So basically they can take care of black people's hair...only if the customer will deny how nature made her. Makes you wonder if these students realize basic things like wet hair isn't always longer than dry hair (which is how most white hair is). You might want to remind your hairdresser next time you go for a shampoo and cut!
Thanks to Maxine for much of the background info (like the link).
by the way...all the practice manikins at the school were white.
See Also:
Yep...I'm Still Ignorant
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First Sunburn of the Season
I've got Style
Wow, fascinating. It sounds like a matter of practicality, though, rather than one of active discrimination. I would rather people learn to specialize in one thing than for them to become jacks of all trades. And you did say blacks are a minority in Ohio -- 10-20%?
ReplyDeleteSo did my hairdresser have special training in cutting Asian hair? I gotta ask her next time....
White people's hair gets longer with water???
ReplyDeleteI found a natural hair salon in the area. They are really hard to find, despite the area being predominately African American. I hope it's good *crosses fingers*
haha! Yep! At least mine, my husbands, my parents, and just about any other white person I have had occasion to see with wet hair.
ReplyDeleteSee...black people are just so ignorant...they just don't know basic things about white people's hair. :-P *winks*
Good luck with the new salon.
If I could increase my business clientèle and revenue by 10-20% I would do it! Getting braids done is really expensive...white salons are missing out on A LOT of money. The practicality argument doesn't cut it for me..sorry :-P
ReplyDeleteI think the issue is, to be certified to be a hair dresser period, not a "white" hairdresser or a "black" hair dresser, you only have to learn how to do one type of hair. The implicit statement is that "white" hair is normal or typical and other types of hair are different or abberant... so much so that when someone learn how to do hair, you don't even learn about other types of hair... like it doesn't even exist.
ReplyDelete*by the way, I put "white" and "black" in quotes because the hair differences are really of texture not race. White people tend to have straight or loosely curled/wavy hair, and people of African decent tend to have tighter curled (afro-textured, kinky) hair. People of other races are all across this straight-kinky spectrum, and there are white people with really tightly curled hair and black people with looser curls.
LOL, then Asians are even more ignorant.... we don't know about both black and white people's hair...
ReplyDeleteI think I realized why I hate getting my hair cut so much. It's because I have no idea what I am doing. They ask me hard questions like "how much do you want taken off?" and "do you want it layered?" and "should I frame your face?" I don't know! I am not a cool person who knows fashion and such! Just make it look good...:-/
ReplyDeleteand....just got it cut again...7 months later. Ooops
ReplyDeleteIf I could increase my business clientèle and revenue by 10-20% I would do it! Getting braids done is really expensive...white salons are missing out on A LOT of money. The practicality argument doesn't cut it for me..sorry :-P
ReplyDeletehaha! Yep! At least mine, my husbands, my parents, and just about any other white person I have had occasion to see with wet hair.
ReplyDeleteSee...black people are just so ignorant...they just don't know basic things about white people's hair. :-P *winks*
Good luck with the new salon.